Next woman Prime Minister of India ?

By Vinod Varshney

The election results have finally put the stamp of reality of woman power in India. Mamata Banerjee and J. Jayalalithaa have just joined the elite ranks of chief ministers, demonstrating the might of women in our politics. Mayawati already rules U.P. unchallenged for the fourth term and Sheila Dixit in Delhi. These four deviyan are not the only paradigms of female power in Indian politics: Sushma Swaraj is a woman of rare political calibre, probably the best female candidate for the PM’s post. Sonia Gandhi is another powerful woman who, as Chairperson of the UPA wields more power than the PM in the current dispensation.

Sucheta Kriplani and Nandini Satpathy were Chief Ministers decades ago; more recently   Vasundhara Raje, Mehbooba Mufti and Uma Bharti occupied the top elected post in their respective states. Indisputably they became chief ministers on their own steam, though like Indira Gandhi who had the Nehruvian legacy to push her initially, Jayalalithaa and Mehbooba Mufti too had inherited some political seed capital to start with. 

Others earned it through sheer hard work among the people.  Mayawati’s ascent to power is singularly anecdotal: she had to transcend the traditional biases of the caste  Hindus  towards her. Even today many of her achievements are ignored by the media and conservative politicians.

One notable aspect is that most of these women leaders made it to the top without any reservation props indicating that Indian voters had no gender bias as in many Western countries.  Women here can rise in politics to any heights if they try real hard.

With the woman power on the ascendant, one is tempted to ask if any woman stands the chance of becoming the Prime Minister of India when the next opportunity comes around in 2014. My dream is that it is about to happen.  I can still feel the reverberations during the last LS elections when the media speculated that Maya-Mamata-Jayalalithaa trio would decide who would  be the next PM. But the Indian voter turned as unpredictable as the south-west monsoon. So the woman who got the king-making opportunity once again was Sonia Gandhi.

Mayawati effervesced in 2009 at the discomfiture of Manmohan Singh, who somehow saved his government amidst fierce opposition from all quarters on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal and declared that only she would be the candidate for the PM in case the proposed opposition alliance wins. Voters, however, decided that it was too early for her to be India’s PM.

             
But 2014 is not too far off. If she repeats her electoral feat in UP in 2012 and wins the CM’s mantle for the fifth time, surely she would be a potential candidate for PM, not to be out-shadowed by Sushma Swaraj. Unluckily, Sonia is ruled out as PM and there is no other woman of similar stature in the Congress who could claim this top political office.  Mamata and Jayalalithaa might also entertain prime ministerial ambitions, but they may not be ready yet in 2014.   
(The article was published in the June, 2011 issue of 'Lokayat') 

                       

Who after Manmohan Singh ?

Vinod Varshney

Election is the reigning flavour of the month. Some may disagree and say—no, the malodour from the numerous fresh skeletons that tumble out of the government’s cupboard one after another is the stifling ‘flavour’ of the season. Yet others who may constitute the largest segment may claim that the true flavour of today is cricket mania. Actually the three flavours represent the three facets of India.

Why should elections in just four States and one Union Territory be such a pervasive affair? The ouster of despots and usurpers in north Africa and gulf countries by agitating crowds makes us see the true worth of free and fair elections. Our people seek to dethrone unwanted elements who occupy the seat of power simply by the exercise of popular will--zealous participation in elections-- as happens now in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Assam and Puducherry. There are enough indications that history will be created in West Bengal if Mamta is able to trounce the CPI(M) at the hustings, after 34 years. People will also wait with bated breath for the poll outcome in other States, especially Tamilnadu, to see whether they can dump some of the worst scam-tainted politicians and their henchmen.

Democracy’s many over-riding merits over authoritarian, feudalistic and theocratic systems notwithstanding, we cannot be oblivious of the fact that in India it is being misused and subverted by vested interests and power-brokers with impunity while the common man looks helpless in stopping them. Peaceful and fair elections conducted at regular intervals are, of course, the powerful instrument at the disposal of the people to rein in such public enemies, but they alone cannot provide good democratic governance for the welfare of the people. To ensure that a lot need to be done by people themselves.

And this is my dreamy assumption that people of India will realize their solemn duty to the country and do their utmost to cleanse the system, not just once but incessantly year after year. The opportunity comes their way almost every year by way of elections. For instance, after the current poll, in 2012 we will have elections in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat among others. The following year 9 states will go to the poll. Then it will be turn of Lok Sabha elections which will definitely throw up the question—who after Manmohan Singh.

In fact this grave matter is already the most active subject of whisper in the corridors of power. But my dreamy desire is that people ask ‘what’ after Manmohan Singh, rather than ‘who’ after him, because nobody likes the same canker of corruption continuously carving at the vitals of the nation. Fictitious surveys are being touted as genuine to ‘establish’ the supremacy of one leader and his coterie over others. But people must understand the ramifications of this insidious campaign -- do not be carried away by the pejorative probing..

‘What’ has bigger implications. It implies urgent need for systemic improvements, as for instance, in preventing generation of black money, main cause of the ubiquitous corruption. Total transparency in decision making through better application of technology seems to offer some hope. But my hunch is that without better social and political culture based on strong ethics, any technology would work only as servant of the corrupt.

So far as the question ‘who after ………’ is concerned, there cannot be any ambiguity. People of this great country definitely want a leader who has proper control over the governing apparatus and who has the cerebral ability to know if and where the machine is spluttering and fix it immediately. And they want a ‘leader’, not just a bureaucrat, who can ‘lead’ not just in politics but in all matters-- economic, social and cultural.

The difficulty is we have to choose from the available lot only. That is to say, our choice will have to be confined to Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram (if the Congress is voted back to power at head of an alliance) or Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj ( if the lot falls to the BJP). Alas, only these! Or would there be a dark horse to lead? This dark horse can be only from among the second rung leaders like Nitish Kumar, Narendra Modi, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Digvijaya Singh, and so on. Some of these gentlemen are best kept out of any democratic government.

The problem is we cannot design and create a leader of our choice either digitally or genetically. If it were feasible, the people of India would have created one by mixing the attributes of Jyoti Basu, Sushma Swaraj and Anna Hazare. May the hopeful inculcate the political acumen of Basu, grace and audacity of Ms Swaraj and honesty of Anna Hazare to provide a leader the great India deserves.

(The article was first published in the April, 2011 issue of Lokayat)

Sing a Song of Action for Healthcare

By Vinod Varshney

India is the place of spectacular economic growth on the planet earth, much lauded and glorified. Many rejoice when news of high growth numbers breaks in quarter after quarter. But for millions it carries no swish of cheer and therefore for them no drink and dance of celebration. Their struggle and challenge remain as ever; rather get worsened with their finances shriveling quarter after quarter. Many of their dreams fall flat on the ground as prices of things they need most to survive increase quarter after quarter. 

Politicians of all shades seem to have forgotten that they have some responsibility towards them. All those who sing drinking songs of growth need to know that true growth lies in human happiness. And there can be no happiness in any unjust society. When I write this, the Finance Minister Pranab Da might have finalised his budget proposals, and I as an earthy dreamer can only wish he does something for them.   

I also pray that he pays attention and do something for the most neglected basic human right, the right to health. Ancient Indian dream used to be to live happily to hundred years. But what we witness around! Millions take birth, grow a little and die even before they are five and add to the bad statistics making it even  worse and lowering India’s rank further in the index of human development. Who is to blame? My negligence! Your negligence!! Or their negligence!!! Or everybody’s forgetfulness of Indian Constitution, which enshrines right to life. 

Twin sister of right to life is right to health. And health in India is surely neglected. I don’t say so, the statistics scream. We spend just 1.05% of our GDP on health, the developed world 7-9 %. We as a country rank 171^thout of 175 countries surveyed by World Health Organisation in terms of GDP spend on healthcare. 

Healthcare does not mean just doctors, medicines, nurses, costly diagnostics and procedures. For hundreds of millions it also means sanitation, safe drinking water and basic nutrition. Half of our children suffer from malnutrition. On this count parts of India are worse than sub-Sahara Africa. Yet economists would brag of our healthcare industry standing at rupees 1, 60,000 Crores and positioning to make a pole vault jump to reach 7, 00,000 Crores by 2017. 

Many proud Indians would forget to count how many more millions would be excluded from the net of affordable healthcare by that time. Currently more than 80 percent of healthcare is in private sector, which is just another business to make money, devoid of any humanitarian mission rendering it inaccessible for most Indians.   

We signed Alma Atta declaration. And by doing so we committed ourselves to the goal of ‘health for all’. Where is buried this promise, resolve and national commitment!  Why this goal remains elusive? It is great that Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has taken up the cudgel to make it an issue for all. 

He is able to hear what people ask for, here and there, in distant parts of India and I dream he succeeds in making our rulers listen their voice through him. After food, desire for health is the voice, unheard so far. It is not just a sweet idea to serve humanity, but should be a solemn duty for all. 

Cheapest & commonest it is to advise and sermonize and say you do it. My dream is we all hear the voice unheard so far and covert into a song of action. This will be the only convincing act, my dear leaders. Improving public health is our prime constitutional duty.

(This article was published in March, 2011 issue of Lokayat)

Cyber Threat To India

Gear up to fight cyber war

ASHOK B SHARMA

India is gearing up to face cyber threats to its national security. The Indian Defence Minister AK Antony has called upon the Armed Forces to be vigilant against emerging cyber threats.  Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Corps of Signals here on Thursday he called upon the Armed Forces to keep abreast of latest technologies.  Terming the Corps of Signals as the “21^st Century Arm of Our Forces”, Antony said it has a major role in promoting inter-service synergy and joint operations.

“The Corps is at the forefront of transforming the Indian Army to a network-centric force.  It must continuously enhance its ability to absorb latest technologies in collaboration with the Industry and R&D establishment. The Corps has done commendable work, be it in fielding futuristic strategic defence communication networks, or development of state-of-the-art tactical communication systems.” 

Speaking on the occasion the Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said that besides being vital to the Armed Forces, telecommunication and cyber infrastructure is a national and strategic asset as various other key sectors such as the Railways, Airlines, Banks and Industry depend on it. He said that ICT will be a key factor in reshaping the methodology of war fighting in the future.  

“Any serious disruption can jeopardize our functioning including our responses to the war being raised by our adversaries. The ramification of cyber attacks launched by an unknown adversary or individual has necessitated a relook at the planning and security of Command and Control infrastructure at the highest levels of national governance,” Raju said.

 Underlining that the modern warfare has undergone a paradigm shift, the Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh said that the Corps of Signals has emerged as the proverbial “nervous system” of the Armed Forces in contemporary times.  

“In all future wars, information superiority will be one of the key battle winning factors and future battlefield milieu would require communication system that are secure, responsive and reliable,”  said General Singh. 

Egyptians' fight for democracy

Why it happened in Egypt so unexpectedly?


By Vinod Varshney

People’s uprising in Egypt is going to end the 30-year long autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak. But it is not just as simple as that. It will have widespread implications not only for other Arab and Muslim countries, but many others including India.


The unexpectedness of the political upheaval on Arab streets took most countries’ foreign offices by surprise. Many are wondering how nobody could foresee the avalanche in Egypt. How come no intelligence agency could suggest that it was coming? No diplomatic pundits could forecast.


Many questions are now being asked how and why it happened so suddenly. But who had anticipated that the USSR would crumble the way it did in 1991?


Is there any invisible force behind?
Many do not believe that such an organized movement can be spontaneous. There should be some invisible force behind. But they are not able to figure out whose handiwork it could be.


Could it be Russia or China if not the US? Or is it Iran? Or is it Hamas of Palestine? Or is this just an expression of anger against Egypt’s weak policies towards Israel? Or is this a new Muslim phenomenon when people of Muslim countries have started coming out on streets for getting a democratic system of governance?


It is natural expression of desire for change
Majority of people I have spoken to believe that it is the natural expression of long suppressed Egyptians. It would be illustrative to know the kind of regime people of Egypt were living in.


Egypt is a country of 80 million who are controlled by 2 million police force, 1 million intelligence corps, 0.5 million strong army and another 0.5 million reserve army. In 25 out of 29 states the governors are either from police or military. Military people are running flourishing businesses and have enough control on the economy.


Left ideologues would have liked to paint Egyptian people’s uprising as an expression of anti-Americanism because the Mubarak regime had continually been supported by the US aid. But surprisingly there were no anti-US or anti-Military slogans.

Massive unemployement is one of the main causes
Most reliable explanation seems that it is the cumulative effect of so many things and the most important of them is the unemployment of hundreds of thousands of young Egyptians. Approximately 3 million people lost their jobs due to global turmoil in the financial service sector. The unemployment rate is staggeringly high around 34% among educated Egyptians?


Egypt has fifty percent population of young people who are under twenties. In such a situation it is not surprising that people got organised propelled by quick and free communication provided by internet. Much inspiration came from the uprising of Tunisia, which threw out the dictator, which was well shown by Al Jazeera TV.

Maoists Are Not For Development

Consensus on Maoist
Problem, not on Solution


By Vinod Varshney


There is political consensus in India that Naxalism is a big threat to the development process and liberal democratic system of the country. But consensus eludes on implementable solutions. A few believe that naxal violence should be dealt with force first and then only can development follow, while others say development process in tribal areas should be speeded up first, and yet another emerging opinion is that the problem can be eradicated only if police action and development activities take place simultaneously and vigourously.

Pranab Mukherjee, the central finance minister asserted in a seminar “Red Corridor And Development” organized thursday by Nai Dunia, a multi-edition Hindi newspaer that naxalite violence was truly an internal security problem, and not just a law and order issue, therefore the centre and state according to the constitution should act together to combat the meance while Arun Jaitly accused the Central Home Ministry for trying to dub the problem as of law and order to be tackled by states. He cautioned intellectuals not to romanticize maoist slogan that power comes from the barrel of gun and took a dig at the widespread perception that lack of development was the sole reason for spread of naxalism. He said that they wanted to capture power by guns.  


Several speakers in the seminar including the NDA supremo Sharad Yadav underscored the fact that the economic development in tribal areas had remained grossly neglected. According to him 2-3 % of the national GDP was based on the resources of the tribal areas which traditionally belonged to them, but they remain neglected in the fruits of growth and development. The worst part of the problem is that tribals have no voice and the society which benefitted from the economic development based on their resources is least concerned about them.


He lamented the changed attitude of the political parties in recent years.” Earlier people like Baleshwar Dayal and ThakKar Bapa and even from the BJP used to go among them and had become their voice, now no political party goes among them. NGOs do go but their job seems to get money from their funders and criticize politicians.


Aruna Sharma, DG Doordarshan drew attention to the fact that the money allocated to each district is as much as Rs 1200 crore, but it remained unused to the extent of seventy percent. This means tribal areas remain perenially under-developed and an entire generation of tribals have to miss the opportunity.


She disagreed with the labour-oriented Bihar model to tackle the under-development of tribal areas. She said that requirement was for infrastructure. Unit cost of infrastructure there would no doubt be costly, but governments should be ready to spend this extra money. 


D.M. Mitra, a security specialist delineated the shift of Naxalism since 1970s which has now retreated to Jungles. He described under-development as an enabling factor for Naxalism, "but no one should be in the wrong impression that the Maoists are for development; they are basically against the liberal democracy." 
"State agencies do not reach amidst tribals, thus they remain segregated from the development and technology so much so they are still in the hunters and gatherers stage of civilization. Government personnel run away from tribal areas at the first available opportunity, sometimes citing their sickness or by taking help of unions and courts and nothing can be done about it."

The situation got worsened by downsizing the bureaucracy by 30 percent so much so at many places only one BDO remains to look after three blocks. He suggested government personnel who work in the tribal areas should be given special incentives as cost of deprivation.

Dr Raman Singh, the Chief Minister of Chattisgarh, a  state troubled with maoist-violence painted a different picture of the problem. He said tribals today were victims of maoists, and terrorized by Maoists they were running away from their traditional habitats . This situation has led to the rise of Salwa Judum (public force) to counter their violence.

He also pointed out how governments had not bothered to heed to the advice of the Supreme Court that companies working in tribal areas should spend 20% of their profits for the development of the area, which currently is only 1-2 percent.  

He gave details of how Maoist extracted some Rs 500-600 crore each year and have acquired sophisticated weapons including ant-helicopter guns and mine detecting equipments. This could not be the handiwork of tribals, but only of forces inimical to India. "This is  not a law and order problem, but an internal security problem of the country. To defeat them there is need to train the police in gorrila warfare."

He criticized intellectuals who often raise an MNC bogey in the Bastar region whereas the fact was only public sector companies like NMDC, SAIL and CMDC were involved in mining activities in this tribal area.

Hindi Shall Grow Globally

New Fortunes for Hindi
By Vinod Varshney

Hindi has started earning new fortunes. Whether it is China, Russia or the US, any country which wants to do serious business with India considers Hindi strategically important. No wonder then special programs of learning Hindi have started in the largest and the second largest economies of the world i.e. the US and China.

In the cold war era the USSR had showed immense love for Hindi, but after the Nine Eleven terrorist attack, the US listed Hindi as a crucial language for America. The Republican President George Bush further upgraded its need and had once declared his government's intention to recruit Hindi teachers.

Now we hear that highly reputed Wharton School of Business is starting a joint degree program in international management, the MBA/MA Lauder Program, which would give students a chance to learn Hindi. In fact Hindi would be one option out of nine important world language including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

This MBA/MA program is designed to prepare future business leaders of international grade. Students mindful of the fact that economy of India is going to be third largest in the world within next two decades would certainly realize the utility of learning Hindi. The program will emphasize cross-cultural and advanced-level language training. 
Hindi is Spoken in America

Hindi is not an unspoken language in America.Thanks to a very large number of Indians in America, there is a good number of Hindi speakers as well. The 2000 census showed that there were 317,057 Hindi speakers in the United States. We would have to wait for the outcome of the 2010 US census, but it is estimated that their number must have reached to half a million by now. In 2006, 1,946 higher education students were studying Hindi and pretty large number of students studying it in grades K-12.

Though craze for English is increasing in India but nobody can ignore the fact that within India more than half a billion people speak Hindi and as many as 800 million people understand Hindi.

Hindi can be learnt very fast if proper IT tools are developed, but inspite of India imparting IT enabled services to so many countries, Hindi has not been able to attract sufficiently the Information Technology for its advancement. Programs of the Ministry of Information Technology are too inadequate.

American Library Launches Hindi Books Initiative

Shashi Shekhar viewing Hindi Books

American Library To Wait
for Hindi e-Books 

 Vinod Varshney

In English-crazy India American Library has started Hindi Books’ initiative. Though the initiative is a micro drop in the ocean of English books as the first tranche is just fifty books, but as the collection would increase, this year itself it is expected to go up to one thousand, it would definitely have an impact on better understanding of American life, politics and economy by Indians.

Kala Anjan Datta has big plans

Currently Hindi books will not be available as e-books which is going to be a new trend as they have not been made available in digital form by the publishers. Whenever this happens, US library would also be able to extend e-books facility for Hindi also, tells Kala Anjan Datta, the Director of the Library. Currently some fifty thousand English titles are available as e-books in the American Library.

Datta also tells that Hindi is the first of the Indian languages initiative; the American Library would also start Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati initiatives in respective zones. There are four branches of the library at four places Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Lydia learns Hindi on a daily basis

The initiative was inaugurated Friday by Shashi Shekhar, the Chief Editor of Hindustan. Excerpts of two books were read out by two Americans who had learnt Hindi only recently. I had an opportunity to have heard Hindi spoken by Japanese, Russian, Italians and Spaniards in the past and I found pronunciation of these two jolly Americans much better, but not sure if they had rehearsed the text several times.

Lydia Berassa of Texas read out portions of President Barrack Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope”. Hearing the audition for some ten minutes I could feel that perhaps Obama has been able to pour his heart and soul in his book. His prose is poetic and now I plan to read the book before Obama comes to India in November this year.

Lydia looked immensely cheerful having learnt Hindi. She is still practicing and learning on a daily basis and may be after two three years her accent would be as natural as of any Indian from Lucknow or Bhopal.
John Fer read out a portion of Hillary Clinton’s book “It Takes a Village”. Hillary’s prose is not that poetic but it is revealing of real America, a country of biggest GDP in the world currently living with some 9 percent plus rate of unemployment.

John learnt Hindi in 6 months

General perception of America in India is shaped by its awesome GDP and very high per capita income. But many Indians do not know that America also has its own share of poor people, which Hillary has candidly discussed in her book. This gives a picture of how programmes evolve and become a national policy in the US.

John Fer as cheerful as Lydia told me about how he learned Hindi within six months. He had already learned Nepali before this for eight months. For quick learning of Hindi he gave credit to his teacher C.K. Arora, a Voice of America journalist.

John finds TV of great help in learning Hindi. He views BBC Hindi and NDTV for getting to know Hindi’s natural flavour.